The Awakening
by serendipitous raven
Summary: You can hide from the present for as long as you want, but there isn't any running from the past.
1. The Present

It had been many years. Many long years, the only sound being the soft blue hum of machinery in the back of a long-forgotten storage room. The silence hung as thick as the dust, both centuries old.  
  
Suddenly the dull hum became a high-pitched keen. A growl built slowly in the inner workings of the machine, as if a moment it had been waiting for was about to come. There was a quiet click, the creak of rusted metal, and the soft hiss of air escaping from a pressurized lock. A young woman snapped awake, her bright green eyes flicking open.  
It had been a very long time.  
  
  
  
  
  
The good thing about a cryo freeze was that you didn't age while you were out, but that was about as far as the benefits went. The young woman sat huddled in front of a junky kerosene heater, wearing several layers of clothing and blankets. The central heating units wouldn't respond; the ducts were eaten through by rust anyway, so even if they still worked, they wouldn't be very efficient. Still, anything would have been better than emergency antiques.  
  
The other supplies weren't in great shape, either. The water rations had been unusable, and the food designed to last no more than three days. The idea of foraging wasn't very appealing, but food was a necessity.  
Drawing the blankets closer, she blew out the heater and sighed into the sudden darkness. She was painfully hungry, but it'd have to wait for morning.  
  
  
  
  
  
It took her a long time to wake up in the morning. The windows were too dirty to let any light in. She glanced at the watch she'd found. It, too, was an ancient relic, compared to her old chronometer the cryo freezer'd destroyed. She regretted not having enough foresight to store it somewhere. Besides, hers had been accurate to a nanosecond. There was no telling how correct the time this watch gave was. It was probably centuries old, and centuries off. At least she'd warmed up during her sleep. Throwing off a few of the blankets, she examined her surroundings a little closer. She pushed herself to her feet and walked around.   
  
Everything still looked familiar. The small bottles on the wall, different medicines, all different colors. The larger boxes, holding bandages, splints, plasters. Even the pictures were the way they had been the day she locked herself into the cryo freezer. There was Cameron, and Erin, and Mama... and herself. She turned the frame over and looked at the handwriting. Mama had always had pretty handwriting... "To Jill, from Mama and the Girls. Good luck." She turned the frame back to the picture side and blew the dust away, looking at it closer. There she was, in faded color, but her hair still stood out. Her bright red hair, and the same green eyes as Jill. Jill bit her lip in a futile attempt to hold back the inevitable tears. "Oh, Mama... I wish you were here now." 


	2. The Past

Jill stood staring at the picture for a long time. Her eyes clouded over with mist as tears splashed to the floor at her feet. She remembered the first time she'd seen this building, as a child. Mama had been right there, holding her hand. "Someday this'll be yours, Jill." The words rang as clear as ever, one of the few pleasurable memories left to Jill. The burning, the massacres, the unbearable pain of helplessness... the Rockets. They'd taken the rest of the good memories along with all the lives.  
And Jill hadn't been able to do anything.  
She'd run and locked herself away.  
It was the helplessness that got to Jill the most. It was her business to help. She fingered the pendant around her neck, remembering. Her mother had given it to her, a gift on the day she'd gotten this place. Mama'd been so proud. The Coral Town Pokécenter was a family tradition. Jill was the only one who'd made it all the way through nursing school. She smiled a little at the memory--Erin, two years older, had been so jealous.  
  
Jill had barely been at the Pokécenter a year when the Rockets came. She cringed, remembering the awful screams, the thick choking smoke... There was still shattered glass in the back of the Center where they'd broken in and taken anything they could lift. Hundreds of dollars of equipment, gone. The medicines in storage had been destroyed or spilled. But none of that mattered. They'd gotten away with something much more important--the Pokémon.   
  
She caught herself wondering if they might still be alive. Jill knew it was impossible. Even if they were, they'd be better off dead. Her Sandshrew had been among those taken. What she would give to have Kirce back... and Mama, and Erin, and even Cameron. Jill sank to the floor, still clutching the picture.  
  
  
  
  
Jill didn't remember falling asleep, but she woke up lying on top of the picture. She yawned, stretching sore muscles. Her stomach growled, and she realized she still hadn't had anything to eat. Maybe it would be best to go now, while it was still light.  
  
She forced the door open, silently cursing the fact that it'd rusted shut. She almost choked. Coral Town was in ruins. The   
houses that were still standing were blackened, and there were very few of those. The Pokémart was a weed patch. Above all, it was deathly silent. Nothing moved, nothing made any noise, there was just space, and dust, and emptiness. No birds singing, no people shouting at each other, no kids playing in the streets. Jill felt small and alone and afraid. She gulped down a sob as she stepped out into the deserted town. Jill had grown up here, and to see it destroyed was simply too much.   
  
She tried humming to herself to cheer up, but it didn't touch the stillness. She anxiously walked down towards the forest. There would have to be something going on there. Maybe that would help. And there would probably be food, too. That would definitely calm her down. She looked nervously around her, then sped up a little. The sooner she got away from the ghost town, the better. She needed some time to sort things through. 


	3. The Future

Author's note: Well, that took long enough! finally, for your reading pleasure, the last and final mini-ish chapter. ^^  
  
  
  
  
All she'd found was a few berries, and those didn't look very safe. Jill sighed. It was going to be a long walk back to the center with a still-empty stomach.  
The forest was unusually quiet, absent of the usual clamor of birds and bugs. The city was the same, when she reached it again. The silence hung like some sort of pressure against her skin. She shivered and tried to shrink away from it. Finding herself back at the door of the center, she struggled momentarily with the rusty hinges, squeezed through the small crack she managed to open, then left the door ajar, resolving to find some way to solve that problem.  
Then again... the whole place was in a shambles. What difference would it make?  
There didn't seem to be an immediate answer to that question, so she settled down for another nap. Sleep seemed to be the best way to overcome hunger.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
In the back room, the blue hum of machinery ceased. There was a loud click and the slow hiss of escaping air. A small round figure sat in a shadowy corner of the box. Its head snapped up, and two black globes opened to awareness.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
She dreamed deep, dreams of cold, and sudden blessed warmth; dreams of empty voids filling with old memory; dreams of searching. The visions still stained her thoughts when she woke again. Jill trembled. The dreams were horridly vivid; she could almost feel their reality, even waking. Not only that, but she had the strangest feeling that she was not the searching, but the searched.   
  
The scratch-click of claws brought her back to more immediate reality. Eyes wide, she curled into a shivering ball and tried to forget.  
  
  
  
  
  
The round black orbs of eyes examined their surroundings, puzzled. Blinking, the small creature stepped out. Its claws made a loud sound on the hard tile floor, and it squeaked, recoiling in fright. Curling into a pitiful ball, it whimpered, lost and afraid.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
The scratching sound didn't repeat itself, and Jill decided to go and investigate. She picked up a flashlight, then tossed it aside, cursing the dead batteries. It knocked over the picture of her family, still sitting on the desk. Jill jumped, skitterish. She turned around and picked it up, pausing to examine Mama's reassuring smile. As she set it down, a scrap of yellow paper floated to the floor, unnoticed. She turned back to the search for a source of light, and finding none, cautiously ventured into the pitch black of the back room.  
  
She was immediately overcome by a wave of emotions, the strongest being--again--a sense of searching. It made her shiver. She cried out, almost stumbling, as her foot met a small round ball on the floor. The thing shrieked pitifully, and Jill instantly felt sorry for it. She picked it up, murmuring reassurance to it. The ball uncurled itself, and the two black orbs looked plaintively to Jill's face. After a moment, they lit up with recognition, and Jill felt the searching resolve into a definite sense of 'found'.  
  
The thing squeaked excitedly. "Shrew!"  
  
"You--what?"  
  
"Shrew."  
  
"You found me?"  
  
"Shrew!"  
  
"So you were looking for me... and waiting? Why?"  
  
With another squeak, the Sandshrew leapt from Jill's arms and scampered back into the main room, clutching the yellow paper. Jill took it and read the note, written in none other than Mama's beautiful handwriting:  
"Jill,  
"As you probably know by now, your sisters and I didn't survive the invasion. I want you to know how much I loved you, and I wish I could have seen you again.  
"I feared for your life, even after you locked yourself away, and I figured you would be lonely when you woke up, so I made sure to save a companion for you. Surely you remember little Kirce. Find her, and try to make your way to Saffron City. If they have withstood the invasion, you'll be safest there. Please be careful, Jill. May the fates see you well.  
-Mama"  
  
Jill turned to the Sandshrew, tears streaking her face as memory flooded back. "Kirce," she cried, hugging the Sandshrew close. "Oh, Mama... fates bless you, you never left me on my own." She shifted the Sandshrew to a more comfortable position, picked up her family picture, and walked through the still-stuck door. She left behind the ruins of her precious city, heading towards Saffron. And in that instant, she found the meaning of her dream. Maybe in Saffron, she, too, would realize the sense of 'found'. Jill smiled slightly, heading for a future that beckoned like a Siren. 


End file.
